The present invention relates to an assemblage of two pieces of bodywork for joining together edge to edge, and to a piece of bodywork belonging to such an assemblage.
It is known that pieces of bodywork are requiring ever more accurate positioning relative to each other in order to ensure satisfactory appearance for a vehicle.
For this purpose, various solutions have already been devised which consists in fixing each piece of bodywork accurately to the structure of the vehicle, while taking care that adjacent pieces of bodywork benefit along their contiguous edges from fixing points that are adjacent or even identical.
The fixings used in such solutions must be relatively strong since they serve both to support the pieces of bodywork and to ensure relative positioning thereof.
As a general rule, those fixings are constituted by fittings, often made of metal, thus giving rise to problems of cost, both in terms of supplies and in terms of labor.
Such fittings are put into place individually, and that means that each location receiving such a fitting must be accessible.
In principle there is no difficulty in accessing the flanges of pieces of bodywork so long as they are not already mounted on a vehicle. In contrast, once they have been mounted, fixing them together generally turns out to be much more difficult and requires operations to be performed that are lengthy and fiddly.
The present invention seeks to provide a novel assemblage of two pieces of bodywork which can be assembled together simply and quickly, even when accessibility is poor, and which ensures that the two pieces of bodywork are positioned relative to each other with great accuracy.
The present invention provides an assemblage of two pieces of bodywork each having a flange for coming into contact via its outside face with the flange of the other piece, the assemblage being characterized in that the flange of a first one of the pieces includes a slot passing through the thickness of the flange to its inside face, while the flange of a second one of the pieces carries a tenon having an engagement shape and extending towards the first piece, the tenon being suitable for penetrating into said slot so as to project from the inside face of the flange of the first piece, the assemblage further comprising a fastener member which is suitable for positioning against the inside face of the flange of the first piece and which has an engagement shape complementary to that of the tenon for engaging therewith.
It will be understood that the invention provides simple means for uniting the facing edges of the two pieces in a manner that is simultaneously strong, simple, and fast.
The engagement shapes of the fastener member and of the tenon(s) of the second piece must serve to retain the tenons against traction in a direction opposite to the direction in which they are inserted into the slots of the first piece. For example, in a preferred embodiment, the engagement shapes are of T-shaped section.
In a particular embodiment, the first piece has a plurality of slots and the second piece has a plurality of tenons positioned to be in register with the slots when the two pieces are brought together.
The slots and the tenons are distributed along the flanges that are to be assembled together, as a function of the mechanical stresses that the assemblage is to withstand.
Advantageously, the tenon(s) and the fastener member engage in a direction that is substantially parallel to the flanges.
In this manner, the fastener member can be engaged with the tenons xe2x80x9cblindxe2x80x9d, i.e. without the operator being able to see the tenons, but merely because the fastener member is properly positioned at the beginning of its engagement stroke parallel to the flanges.
In an advantageous variant, the first piece has guide shapes on the inside face of its flange, which guide shapes support the fastener member over an appropriate stroke along the flanges of the pieces to enable it to engage the tenons. Under such circumstances, it is easier to move the fastener member blind, thus enabling it to be put into place on flanges having very poor accessibility, for example having only one end that is accessible, with the remainder of said flanges being inaccessible.
This applies in particular when connecting a fender to a bumper, with the fastener member then being inserted via the wheel arch by moving it upwards, with the assembled-together flanges of the fender and the bumper then being inaccessible over their entire height.
If in addition, the tenons and the fastener member are arranged in such a manner that said fastener member is engaged with all of the tenons simultaneously, then it will be understood that it is particularly easy and quick to put the fastener member into place and that the two pieces of bodywork can be fastened together thereby, merely by means of a single stroke in translation.
In another advantageous variant, compatible with the preceding variant, the fastener member is suitable for taking up not only an engaged position with the tenons, but also a pre-engagement position in which it is located against the inside face of the flange of the first piece but is not yet engaged with the tenons, transfer from said pre-engagement position to the engagement position being performed by moving the member in translation along a stroke slightly longer than the engagement length of the tenons.
Thus, the fastener member can be put in the pre-engagement position on the first piece even before the two pieces of bodywork are brought together.
In a particular embodiment of the invention, one of the pieces has centering orifices positioned in precise manner in its flange, and the other piece has centering pegs for engaging with little clearance in said centering orifices.
According to other particular features of the invention:
at least one of the pieces of bodywork, and preferably the first piece, i.e. the piece carrying the tenons, is made of a plastics material;
the fastener member is made of plastics material; and
the centering studs are provided on a piece of bodywork that is made of plastics material.
The invention also provides a piece of bodywork having a flange for coming into contact with the flange of another piece of bodywork, and characterized in that it carries a tenon presenting an engagement shape projecting from its flange.
In order to facilitate understanding the invention, embodiments are described below as non-limiting examples, and with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: